FirstEnergy wants out of the competitive power generation business. That’s been known since CEO Chuck Jones said so last fall. But, as the Akron-based utility tries to sell its power plants, or get the nuclear ones re-regulated, it’s also trying to lower the taxes it has to pay on them.

Declaring what’s called an “impairment”’ is one way to do that. It’s like asking the city to lower your property tax if the value of your house drops. In FirstEnergy’s case they’re saying the drop is $9-Billion.